Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

This type of house, together with the "hafotai" represents the result of an expansion in settlement which started in later medieval times. The sites of these buildings vary, but most are found in the sheltered upper reaches of streams. Occasionally they were set up on the open moorland, in the midst of land which never was completely enclosed, the house being surrounded by small fields (not unlike those of the Early Iron Age) of improved land, taken at great personal labour from the moor. Very few of these homes in the Banwy Valley are long-houses as designated by Peate.6 The larger number consist of a single loom and no upstairs, except for a cramped loft. SETTLEMENT 1850-1960 The map shows the distribution of all native farms, known in 1850 and at the present time. The 1,250 feet contour has been inserted, together with the main water courses, to convey an impression of the conformation of landscape and to allow an identification of areas within the basin. The land which was fully enclosed before Parliamentary Enclosure (assumed to be the approximate extent of the mediaeval "tir priod" with later additions) is also indicated. The arbitary boundary of the region is the watershed. During the last century there was a notable abandonment of farms in the western half of the basin, particularly above the 800 feet contour line. It is interesting to note that in other Welsh areas the 1,000 feet contour line is taken as the critical line. With the exception of the Valley of Afon Gam (the district known locally as Cwm nant yr Eira), there are few deserted holdings on the lands of early enclosure. The documentary evidence for pre-Parliamentary Enclosure (1812) is not com- plete for no maps exist to show the pattern of early and Parliamentary enclosure in the Upper Banwy Valley, west of the Afon Gam-Afon Banwy confluence. However, the trends manifest in the landscape itself, supported by an article in the "Cambrian Register" (1796), suggests that this was an area of traditional native settlement, with many holdings having evolved from former "hafotai", and with crofts asso- ciated with "one-night house" traditions. Many of those holdings which have vanished from the landscape have left only scanty evidence of their former existence: possibly a patch of improved ground now being overgrown by the natural vegetation of the high moor, until the former (6) Peate, Iorwerth, The Welsh House, Liverpool, 1944.